Researching Light: Current Projects from 6 Labs

Mark has designed interior and exterior lighting systems for a wide range of applications including residential, municipal, retail, healthcare and both conventional and nuclear power plants. Over several decades he has provided lighting education while working, presenting and teaching across four continents. He serves on over twenty lighting related committees including ASHRAE, ANSI, IEEE, ISO and the IES. As a part of his job he also monitors over 100 lighting related organizations.

Mark is a columnist for Lighting Design and Application Magazine (LD+A) writing on the changes in our industry and he hosts a podcast on lighting trends and technologies. Mark has served on multiple boards and is currently on several executive committees advising various organizations. Mark ran the educational centers for both Cooper and Hubbell Lighting and was the Director of Government & Industry Relations for OSRAM SYLVANIA before joining the Illuminating Engineering Society and he serves as lighting consultant to the IES today through his company, Augmented Illumination.

Ron Gibbons is the Director of the Center for Infrastructure Based Safety Systems (CIBSS) at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). He is the Institute’s lead lighting research scientist. He is currently the PI on projects investigating the impact of outdoor lighting on human health, the Spectral Effects of new light sources on roadways, the visibility of police vehicles and is the subject matter lead for the FHWA office Safety IDIQ contract. Dr. Gibbons is also an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech. Gibbons is the author of over 80 published papers on roadway lighting, photometry, and target visibility. He is a past Director of Division 4 of the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) and a past president of the Illuminating Engineering Society.

Kelly Gordon has been a Program Manager at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for 20 years. She manages the Advanced Lighting Research program with 24 team members who provide core technical support to the US Department of Energy Lighting R&D program. Kelly has focused throughout her career on lighting energy efficiency and technology development. She earned a Master’s in Public Policy from Duke University and a BA in Political Science from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota.

Dr. Robert F. Karlicek, Jr. is a professor of Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering, and the Director of the Center for Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications (LESA) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  Prior RPI, he spent over 30 years in industrial research and R&D management positions related to optoelectronics, telecommunications and lighting systems with corporations including AT&T Bell Labs and General Electric. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh and has over 56 peer reviewed technical papers and 48 U.S. patents.

Dr. Sharps is the manager of the Advanced Materials Sciences department at Sandia National Labs.  He has a PhD in Materials Science from Stanford University.  Prior to joining Sandia, he was involved in the development of high efficiency, III/V multi-junction solar cells for over 28 years, both at the Research Triangle Institute and at Emcore / SolAero.  He has 24 US patents and over 120 conference proceedings and peer reviewed publications.  He has either led or been involved with teams that have developed nine commercial products.  Dr. Sharps also has extensive experience with growth, processing, and testing of III/V photovoltaic devices, as well as support of manufacturing yield improvement and process optimization.

N. Narendran, PhD — Dr. Narendran is a professor and director of research at Rensselaer’s Lighting Research Center. He is well known for his pioneering research in the field of solid-state lighting, including LED performance improvement through novel packaging, development of accelerated life-testing methods, and the use of LEDs in high-value lighting applications. His current research focuses on 3D printing for lighting, specifically investigations of the properties of materials and 3D printed components for lighting fixtures, including mechanical, thermal, optical, and electrical subcomponents. Dr. Narendran and his research group are leading the lighting industry transformation to supply on-site, on-time delivery of cost-effective lighting components and fixtures, and thus changing the current lighting practice. Dr. Narendran has authored more than 130 articles in archival journals and proceedings and holds over 50 patents. He is a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, the SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, and a member of the committee on the assessment of solid-state lighting for the National Research Council of the National Academies.

Jordan Shackelford is a Senior Scientific Engineering Associate in the Electronics, Lighting & Networks Group at LBNL. Jordan has over 10 years of experience in emerging lighting and controls technology evaluations. He works in LBNL's FLEXLAB on experimental design, testing, and analysis, and installs and manages lighting, controls, and monitoring systems in the lab. Jordan has worked on field demonstration projects for interior commercial LED retrofits and networked controls with auto-DR, and on early utility-funded LED street lighting and advanced controls research. He holds a Masters Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford’s Atmosphere / Energy Program.